Euro-zone annual inflation is expected to be 0.6% in March 2009 which will be a record low, according to a flash estimate issued by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

It was 1.2% in February and the European Central Bank’s (ECB) target annual inflation rate is below but close to 2%. At the meeting of the Governing Council later on this week, the ECB is expected to cut the benchmark rate from 1.5% to 1%.

The ECB meeting coincides with the opening of the G-20 summit of the leaders of the leading developed and emerging economies, in London. Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB’s president, recently appealed to the world leaders, when speaking in the European Parliament, to “show the public there is an exit strategy” from the current global economic crisis.